The interior of an aircraft can be customized in many different layouts. This includes the positioning of various monuments, such as but not limited to lavatories, galleys, dividers, and closets. The monuments should be constructed and attached within the aircraft to withstand predetermined loads, such as flight, decompression, or ground crash loads. Various testing methods are currently employed to test the monuments.
Some testing methods attach a test monument to a relatively rigid structure that represents the aircraft floor. However, the test does not account for floor stiffness. Another testing method is for isolated springs to be attached to the test monument. This method accounts for the floor flexibility. However, the test method does not account for the co-dependency of deflections at the different attachment points where the test monument is attached to the floor.
Another testing method constructs a replica of the floor. The floor replica accounts for the co-dependency of deflections between the different attachment points. However, constructing a floor replica is expensive and time consuming. Further, the floor usually cannot be re-used in subsequent testing thus adding to the cost and time for constructing additional replicas. Further, this method is not practical when multiple different monument arrangements and floors need to be tested. One example of when occurs is for a monument supplier that supplies monuments to different aircraft manufacturers or for different zones in an aircraft.